Ask most businesses who their target audience is, and you will get a confident answer. Age range. Gender. Income level. Job title. Location. On paper, it looks thorough. In reality, it explains very little.
There is a reason businesses are often proud of their marketing while being disappointed by the results. Marketing that looks good and marketing that works are not the same thing.
“Set it and forget it” might be the most misleading promise in modern advertising.
It sounds efficient. It sounds scalable. It sounds like technology finally figured out how to make marketing easy.
If you have ever pitched or invested in top-of-funnel (TOF) marketing such as brand awareness, content exposure, or audience-building tactics, you have probably heard the same question:
“But how do we know it is working?”
Why the Future of Growth Is Evolving from a Funnel to a Loop
For years, the marketing funnel has guided how businesses attract, nurture, and convert customers. It’s been the framework behind everything from inbound content to performance ads. And it still works—just differently than it used to.
If you’re feeling whiplash from how fast marketing is changing, you’re not alone. The takeaway from this week’s keynote and wrap-up at Marketing Success Season was clear: growth won’t come from doing the old playbook faster—it’ll come from doing it differently. That means approaching Q4 with a beginner’s mind, building journeys that feel seamless across channels, and letting AI give you time back while your team doubles down on the human moments that actually move revenue.
Let’s be honest with ourselves – the old playbook of blasting a “50% OFF Black Friday” email and calling it holiday strategy is dead. Consumers are overwhelmed, fatigued, and increasingly tuning out the noise. Globally, 39% of shoppers say there are simply too many deals, and 25% have stopped paying attention to big sales events altogether.
AI isn’t just another tool in the marketing stack. It’s quickly becoming the difference between brands that limp through growth and those that dominate. And if you’re still treating AI like a novelty—dabbling here, experimenting there—you’re already behind.
The pace of marketing change has never been faster. Customer expectations shift daily, technology doubles its intelligence every seven months, and competition is a click away. MDDC Ad Services attended “Marketing Success Season” hosted by MailChimp which brought together some of the brightest minds in marketing and advertising to tackle one question: how can we grow smarter in this new landscape?
Businesses today have more choices than ever when it comes to connecting with their customers. From trusted traditional advertising channels like newspapers, print, and broadcast, to the ever-expanding world of digital platforms, the options are rich and varied. Each channel has its strengths, and when combined thoughtfully, they create a powerful mix.
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